The way that I got involved with microtonal music was, frankly, through jazz.
I do feel a responsibility because most people like me that are my age or younger, they don't quite make it over to the jazz side. They flirt with it, but they don't quite marry it.
Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good it does.
When I sang that song, I felt it was almost as if some force had moved into my body. Things like that have only happened to me singing jazz. It doesn't happen when singing pop. I get so deeply into the music, it feels like I've become someone else.
The clarinet is not so dominant in Israeli music as it is in klezmer. I heard klezmer when I was growing up, but for some reason I avoided it. I listened to Louis Armstrong instead. But the sense of melody is the connection between jazz and klezmer.
Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music, man - it's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.
When I discovered Mose Allison I felt I had discovered the missing link between jazz and blues
I'm a jazz musician, and I really wanted to not miss an opportunity to have the full connection to jazz.
